A third installment of inherited quilts, this time from Yellow Creek Mennonite Church, feature in a new exhibit at the Goshen College Library Gallery. A public reception will take place on Sept. 10 from 3-5 p.m. The exhibit will continue through Nov. 12, 2017. Read full article »

Wes Bontreger, pastor, with Dawn Paul and daughters Lydia and Dulaney, and quilts that will appear in the exhibit, “Inherited Quilts 3: Yellow Creek Mennonite Church.”

A third installment of inherited quilts, this time from Yellow Creek Mennonite Church, feature in a new exhibit at the Goshen College Library Gallery. A public reception will take place on Sept. 10 from 3-5 p.m. The exhibit will continue through Nov. 12, 2017.

Like the first and second “Inherited Quilts” exhibit in 2013 and 2016, respectively, this exhibit honors the long tradition of Mennonite women who make quilts for relief and service projects. The first exhibit featured quilts from College Mennonite Church in Goshen, and the second featured quilts from Clinton Frame Mennonite Church in rural Goshen.

In “Inherited Quilts 3,” antique and vintage quilts will be displayed that have descended through two, three and four generations of families at Yellow Creek Mennonite Church, located on County Road 11, west of Goshen.

The quilts include patchwork, appliqued, embroidered and sateen whole cloth quilts. Photographs and notes on makers and owners add historical and cultural context.

The exhibit is sponsored by the Mennonite-Amish Museum Committee. The exhibit is open during library hours, which vary throughout the school year. See the Good Library website for current hours.

A collection of “mixed oddities,” including miscellaneous historical artifacts, will be on display in the Harold and Wilma Good Library basement gallery at Goshen College from March 26 through July 28, 2017. A reception will take place on Sunday, March 26, 3-5 p.m., in the Good Library Gallery, and is free and open to the public. Read full article »

Art exhibit:A Cabinet of Curiosities IIReception date and time: Sunday, March 26, 3-5 p.m. (exhibit open March 26 through July 28, 2017)Location: Goshen College’s Harold and Wilma Good Library GalleryCost: Free and open to the publicSponsor: The Mennonite-Amish Museum Committee

A collection of “mixed oddities,” including miscellaneous historical artifacts, will be on display in the Harold and Wilma Good Library basement gallery at Goshen College from March 26 through July 28, 2017. A reception will take place on Sunday, March 26, 3-5 p.m., in the Good Library Gallery, and is free and open to the public.

The title of the exhibit is the English name for the earliest museums, which in the 16th century were designated rooms, or “cabinets,” in wealthy households that contained a miscellaneous collection of artifacts, whether of artistic, scientific or archaeological interest.

This umbrella title gives the exhibit’s sponsor, the Mennonite-Amish Museum Committee, the opportunity to present to the public a variety of recent and earlier acquisitions that have not yet fit into themed exhibits.

Among the most “curious” items are a Belgian pistol found in Armenia, painted wood dancing shoes from India, a toy hobby horse, and a wood mold for adobe bricks from a Mennonite immigrant house in Kansas.

The exhibit will be dominated by four fine antique Amish and Mennonite quilts, recently acquired, along with the 150th anniversary quilt by Shirley Shenk for Forks Mennonite Church, Middlebury, which recently closed.

Among other folk arts are a glass painting of Pike’s Peak, fraktur and revival fraktur, a faceless Amish doll, and monogrammed linens.

Commercial arts include a Goshen Brewing Company T-shirt, a Blue Gate Theater poster and ceramics from Langnau, Switzerland.

Items in the display come from the more than 3000 museum artifacts owned by the Mennonite Historical Library at Goshen College. Curator is Faye Peterson of Goshen, who also mounted the first Cabinet of Curiosities exhibit in 2009.

The exhibit is sponsored by the Mennonite-Amish Museum Committee. The exhibit is open during library hours, which vary throughout the school year. See the Good Library website for current hours.

An exhibit featuring Doug Unger’s paintings of Amish farmscapes in Holmes County, Ohio, will open in Goshen College’s Library Gallery on September 11, with a reception from 3-5 p.m. in the gallery.

The collection displays images of Charm, Ohio, a settlement of about 80 people in the Amish countryside south of Berlin in Holmes County, which is the second largest Old Order Amish community in North America. Inspired by its serene beauty, Unger spent recent decades painting the landscapes.

Unger is an environmentalist and professor emeritus in the School of Art at Kent State University. He also plays traditional music and creates banjos, mandolins and guitars, having been recognized with a National Endowment Fellowship and the Ohio Heritage Award.

His paintings are created with pastels on paper and oils on canvas, in a contemporary realism style.

In his artist’s statement for the show, Unger wrote, “I have now been painting Charm landscapes for about thirty years. I continue to be drawn to the beauty of the landscape and the Amish farmers’ ability to be stewards of the land.”

All of the paintings in the exhibit are for sale. The show is free and open to the public and will be available until November 11.

This exhibit is co-sponsored by the Mennonite-Amish Museum Committee and the Art Department of Goshen College.

A new exhibit of inherited quilts from members of Clinton Frame Mennonite Church in Goshen will open at the Goshen College Library Gallery, with a public reception on March 15 from 3-5 p.m. The exhibit will continue through July 1, 2016. Read full article »

A new exhibit of inherited quilts from members of Clinton Frame Mennonite Church in Goshen will open at the Goshen College Library Gallery, with a public reception on March 13 from 3-5 p.m. The exhibit will continue through July 1, 2016.

Like the first “Inherited Quilts” exhibit in 2013, this exhibit honors the long tradition of Mennonite women who make quilts for relief and service projects. The first exhibit featured quilts from College Mennonite Church. This time around it features quilts from Clinton Frame Mennonite Church in rural Goshen.

In 1916-17, the Women’s Mission and Service Commission (WMSC) gave a church sanction and organizational focus to women’s domestic folk arts, especially the making of quilts. In 2003, WMSC and its successor organizations became Mennonite Women USA. The antique and vintage Mennonite and Amish quilts in this exhibit honor the continuing handwork of women at Clinton Frame Mennonite Church.

At their regular meetings on the first Wednesday of every month, quilting remains their main project. The quilts go to charity auctions, especially the Michiana Mennonite Relief Sale, but also others at Gospel Echoes Church, Bethany and Clinton Christian Schools, as well as Adriel School and Black Swamp in Ohio. Some men join them in making prayer shawls and school, hygiene and relief kits for Mennonite Central Committee. They support the “Dress a Girl and Doll Around the World” projects. They have also made furnishings for Amigo Centre and Goshen Cancer Center.

Most of the quilters in Mennonite Women at Clinton Frame learned their skill from a previous generation of mothers, grandmothers, aunts and neighbors. This exhibit documents that origin by displaying quilts of various sizes made by ancestors one, two or three generations earlier who taught and inspired today’s quilters.

Some of the quilts are in pristine condition, some are very used. Some are stunning in design, others merely beautiful. All invoke deep feelings in their owners as they preserve memories of beloved friends and relatives and serve as visual documents of family history.

The exhibit is sponsored by the Mennonite-Amish Museum Committee. The exhibit is open during library hours, which vary throughout the school year. See the Good Library website for current hours.

A new exhibit, “Collections in the Collection: Mennonite, Amish, Hutterite,” will open at Goshen College with a public reception in the Library Gallery on March 15 from 3-5 p.m. The exhibit will continue through July 30, 2015. Read full article »

]]>Doug Hostetter, who donated Vietnam peace posters to the MHL collection, is shown with Vietnamese refugees who were members of the Bamboo Crafts project that he organized during his voluntary service in Tam Ky, Vietnam, 1966-69. The sign reads: “The Vietnam Christian Service Bamboo Cooperative First Anniversary.” (Photo contributed)

Art exhibit: “Collections in the Collection: Mennonite, Amish, Hutterite”Reception date and time: Sunday, March 15, 3-5 p.m. (exhibit open March 15 through July 30, 2015)Location: Goshen College’s Harold and Wilma Good Library GalleryCost: Free and open to the publicSponsor: The Mennonite-Amish Museum Committee of Goshen College

A new exhibit, “Collections in the Collection: Mennonite, Amish, Hutterite,” will open at Goshen College with a public reception in the Library Gallery on March 15 from 3-5 p.m. The exhibit will continue through July 30, 2015.

Six collectors, whose objects are a significant part of the 3,000 museum items in the Mennonite Historical Library collection at Goshen College, are represented in the exhibit by items selected from their varied collections.

This exhibit recognizes the six major donors by clustering representative gifts from each of them. The donors include:

Doug Hostetter, now Mennonite Central Committee’s representative to the United Nations in New York City, whose collection includes posters and other items related to his work in and for Vietnam from 1966 to 1969.

Tom Conrad, Columbus, Ohio, who gathered a large collection of handmade objects, including many decorated towels, from Amish homes in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Evangeline Matthies Neuschwander, who saved handicrafts made by Mennonite refugees in Holland after World War II, including in their re-settlements in Paraguay and Brazil.

Angela Steffke of Michigan, who travelled to Hutterite communities in the western United States and Canada, collecting textiles, toys and other items representing Hutterites today.

Ray and Romaine Sala, natives of Somerset County, Pennsylvania, who became dealers in antiques, with a special interest in Amish and Mennonite items from their home area.

The items they collected yield insights into the identity and values of each collector.

The exhibit is dedicated to these generous people, with thanks for their interest in Anabaptist history and culture and in Goshen College.

Faye Pottinger, of Goshen, curated the exhibit. The exhibit is sponsored by the Mennonite-Amish Museum Committee. The exhibit is open during library hours, which vary throughout the school year. See the Good Library website for current hours.

A variety of mugs, plates and T-shirts that explore Mennonite identity will be on display in the Harold and Wilma Good Library basement gallery at Goshen College.

The exhibit, called “Mennonite Identity in Mugs, Plates and T-Shirts,” opens on Tuesday, Aug. 26 and will be on display through Sunday, Nov. 16. A reception will take place on Sunday, Sept. 7 from 3 to 5 p.m.

The exhibit documents the way that Mennonites have used material culture to express religious and ethnic identity in public, in the workplace and in the home.

Some of the featured objects are historical, such as T-shirts worn by Mennonite conscientious objectors as part of the Pax Program, an overseas service organization begun in 1951. Other objects are contemporary, like the “Where’s My GLBTQ Prof?” T-shirt worn by some students around Goshen College’s campus today.

The gallery will showcase mugs, plates and T-shirts from a variety of Mennonite organizations: colleges, nonprofit agencies and congregations.

According to Ervin Beck, the exhibit organizer, the phenomenon of using commercially produced objects to project Mennonite identity coincided with the trend of Mennonite assimilation into American culture that occurred during World War II.

“In earlier times and in different places,” said Beck, “Mennonite identity was expressed in material culture through distinctive costumes, hair styles, occupations, church architecture and vehicles.”

The exhibit will feature pottery from Royal Tichelaar Makkum, a Dutch company that has been owned since 1676 by the Tichelaars, a Mennonite family. The company produced fine porcelain pottery for the general market and also special Mennonite-themed plates for commemorative and display purposes.

Kate Yoder, a senior art and English writing double major, curated the exhibit. As the curator, Yoder’s main task was to organize the objects and then arrange the physical layout of the exhibit.

“I’ve always had an interest in curating, but this is the first chance I got to try it out,” Yoder said. “It was a challenge to decide how to best categorize these objects and then figure out appropriate ways to display them in a three-dimensional space. I learned that a curator’s job is complex. It requires a mind oriented to organization, practicality, design and conceptualization.”

Yoder said she was drawn to this particular exhibit because of its playful and tongue-in-cheek nature. She attributes her interest in Mennonite identity to the research she did during the 2012 Maple Scholars summer research program with John D. Roth, professor of history.

“I researched Anabaptist cultural identity in the context of martyrdom, and this sparked my interest in the way Mennonites display their culture,” Yoder said.

The exhibit is sponsored by the college’s Mennonite-Amish Museum Committee. The exhibit is open during library hours, which vary throughout the school year. See the Good Library website for current hours.

Art exhibit: Commemorative Quilts Reception date and time: Sunday, March 16, 3-5 p.m. (exhibit open March 16 through July 27, 2014) Location: Goshen College’s Harold and Wilma Good Library Gallery Cost: Free and open to the public Sponsor: The Mennonite-Amish Museum Committee Read full article »

]]>

Art exhibit: Commemorative QuiltsReception date and time: Sunday, March 16, 3-5 p.m. (exhibit open March 16 through July 27, 2014)Location: Goshen College’s Harold and Wilma Good Library GalleryCost: Free and open to the publicSponsor: The Mennonite-Amish Museum Committee

Old and recent Mennonite and Amish quilts that record and honor significant life events will be on display in the Harold and Wilma Good Library basement gallery at Goshen College. The exhibit opens on Sunday, March 16 and will be on display through July 27, 2014. A reception will take place on Sunday, March 16, 3-5 p.m., in the Good Library Gallery. Read full article »

Art exhibit: Commemorative QuiltsReception date and time: Sunday, March 16, 3-5 p.m. (exhibit open March 16 through July 27, 2014)Location: Goshen College’s Harold and Wilma Good Library GalleryCost: Free and open to the publicSponsor: The Mennonite-Amish Museum Committee

Old and recent Mennonite and Amish quilts that record and honor significant life events will be on display in the Harold and Wilma Good Library basement gallery at Goshen College. The exhibit opens on Sunday, March 16 and will be on display through July 27, 2014. A reception will take place on Sunday, March 16, 3-5 p.m., in the Good Library Gallery.

The quilts were created to celebrate birthdays, graduations, weddings, anniversaries, disasters, retirements, deaths or other notable life markers. Patterns include samplers, “crazy patch” and embroidered squares, as well as original designs. The makers, recipients and events are documented with background stories and photographs.

Two of the oldest quilts in the exhibit are “crazy patch” friendship quilts, one made in 1903 bearing the signatures of Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Smucker, founders of the Smucker preserves company, and one made in 1921 for the Ira and Emma Loucks Christophel family, near Wakarusa, following a devastating household fire.

One of the more recent quilts is a necktie quilt made in 2006 by Kent Beck in memory of a beloved mentor, Ellis Croyle. Another is a “Psalms Quilt” of original design, with 25 appliqued squares, each standing for a different Psalm. It was made by Carol Honderich to commemorate the 45th annual Michiana Mennonite Relief Sale.

The exhibit is sponsored by the Mennonite-Amish Museum Committee. The exhibit is open during library hours, which vary throughout the school year. See the Good Library website for current hours.

The Goshen College Art Department and art club are co-sponsoring a themed student art exhibit in the Harold and Wilma Good Library basement gallery at Goshen College. The exhibit, based on the theme “recycled,” opened on Nov. 28 and will be on display through Feb.19, 2014. Read full article »

]]>“Floating Away” by Anitianna Terrell. 2013. Mixed media.

Art exhibit: “Recycled”Reception date and time: Monday, Feb. 10, 10:30 a.m.– noon (exhibit open now through Feb. 19)Location: Goshen College’s Harold and Wilma Good Library basement galleryCost: Free and open to the public

The Goshen College Art Department and art club are co-sponsoring a themed student art exhibit in the Harold and Wilma Good Library Gallery at Goshen College. The exhibit, based on the theme “recycled,” opened on Nov. 28 and will be on display through Feb.19, 2014. A reception will take place on Monday, Feb. 10, from 10:30 a.m. to noon in the Good Library Gallery.

This is the fourth year a themed student exhibit has been held. Previous themes were “tolerance and the other,” “north and south” and “lion and lamb.”

“Themes are selected that reflect the shared values of the Goshen College community,” said Randy Horst, professor of art at the college. “We try to pick themes that can be interpreted in a wide variety of approaches.”

This year’s exhibit includes 33 artists and 51 works of art in a variety of media, including drawing, jewelry, sculpture, painting, collage, ceramics and mixed media. The artwork explores issues related to recycling and earth care, explore ideas and issues related to cultural and social redefinition and explore the use of repurposed materials.

The exhibit is open during library hours, which vary throughout the school year. See the Good Library website for current hours.

November 28 – February 19 The Goshen College Art Club & Art Department brings you a special thematic Student Art Exhibit. This year’s theme is “Recycled” and all student-submitted pieces must represent this theme in some form. The guidelines entrants had to follow were: Each work must be original in concept and execution and created this year. All media […] Read full article »

]]>

November 28 – February 19

The Goshen College Art Club & Art Department brings you a special thematic Student Art Exhibit. This year’s theme is “Recycled” and all student-submitted pieces must represent this theme in some form.

The guidelines entrants had to follow were: Each work must be original in concept and execution and created this year. All media except digital productions were acceptable. Entries must not exceed five feet.